1. Field of the Invention
The invention herein relates to fiber optic communications and to the use of optical fibers in conjunction with office equipment. More particularly relates to apparatus for the incorporation of optical fiber distribution systems in modular office furnishings.
2. Background of the Invention
It is common in many offices, research facilities, light manufacturing plants and similar work places to have a number of people all working in the same room. Each employee's work space is defined by work area furnishings, which are commonly modular structures. Typically the work areas are formed by the interconnection of modular panels to form clusters of work areas. These panels also normally can be configured to include counters or desk tops, book shelves, storage cabinets and the like, so that each employee's work space can be configured to the optimum arrangement for the employee's particular work tasks. Also, because these various panels are modular, the various work areas can be disassembled and reassembled in various configurations as needed to ensure that working areas remain efficient as the company's work needs change.
In most if not all of these modular work areas, there will be a variety of types of office equipment, including computers and communication equipment such as telephones and facsimile machines. Since most of the work areas are clustered into groups (typically of two to twelve work spaces), it is most efficient if the communications cables serving the various work stations are led in centrally through the work station panels.
In the past, there have been numerous designs of modular panels which have included paths or raceways for electrical power lines and electronic communication cables. Virtually every manufacturer of modular office structures offers panels incorporating such features; typical systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,203,639; 4,841,699; and Re. 31,733. In such panels, the cables are led through narrow raceways and exit at various outlet boxes formed into or attached to the panels, so that the various pieces of office equipment can be connected to the power and/or communication cables by simply being plugged into the outlets on the face of the panels for each work area.
In recent years, fiber optic communications have largely displaced electrical communication systems in many applications, including but not limited to telephone, facsimile and computer communications. Optical fibers carry communication signals much more efficiently than electrical cables, particularly in multiplexing systems, since a much higher number of light signals can be carried separately and distinctly by optical fibers than the number of electrical signals which can be carried by conventional electrical wires. In addition, since there is no radiation field surrounding an optical fiber as there is surrounding an electric wire, many optical fibers can be bundled together without interference between their carried signals. Because of this transition to optical fiber communications, there has been a clear need to be able to use optical fibers in modular office panel systems in place of electrical communication systems.
However, several problems exist which prevent customers from simply directly replacing electrical communication wires with optical communication fibers. First, optical fibers have much different physical properties than electric wires, since they are made of light transmitting materials such as glass and acrylic polymers rather than electrical conductive metals. The physical properties of the glass and polymer fibers require much more space in raceways to make the various turns necessary since light cannot be transmitted around sharp bends in a fiber. See Hecht, Understanding Fiber Optics, Chapters 2 and 4 (1987). If the bending radius of the optical fiber is too great, a critical parameter called the confinement angle of the light will be exceeded, so that a portion of the light will escape from the fiber in the curve, thus diminishing or distorting the transmitted signal. Also, glass is susceptible to physical damage. Consequently, different accommodations for optical fibers must be made in panels than are required for electrical wires, which can be bent and twisted essentially at any angle.
Further, optical fibers are more efficiently used for communications if the final distribution point of a signal to a target piece of equipment, such as a telephone or computer, is placed as close to that piece of equipment as is physically reasonable. It is much more technically effective and economical to run a multi-fiber trunk cable from a remote location to the modular work area, and then run the various fiber duplex pairs for the shortest practical distance possible.
In addition, a typically configured remote distribution system reduces the overall efficiency of space planning for the work areas and the manager's ability to organize the work for the most efficient work flow. Because of the significant distance between the distribution room and any individual work station, any change in work tasks assigned to that station or in the equipment used at that station requires that entirely new fiber cables be run from the remote distribution room to the work station, clearly a time consuming and expensive project. Also, since the cables have to be run for some distance, including through the ceiling or floor of the work room, it is not uncommon for such changeovers also to seriously disrupt the work of other employees whose work spaces are located near the work space being converted, at least for the period of the changeover.
Finally, optical fibers are useful for communications, but they are not able to transmit power in addition to signals. Consequently, electrical power must still be provided to the various work areas to run office equipment, including that equipment which receives its signal communications through optical fibers. In the past, this has required separate distribution systems and raceways and therefore most modular equipment manufactures and most business and industrial end-users have been reluctant to incorporate optical fiber communication capability into their panels and other modular products, because of the additional cost, complexity of panels and duplicate distribution structures required.
It would therefore be quite advantageous to have an optical fiber communication apparatus which can be directly incorporated into modular panels, and for such panels to be easily and economically structured to accommodate and to provide optimum use of the optical fibers. Such systems would also provide for rapid and simple reconfiguration of work spaces with little or no loss of signal transmission efficiency or disruption of adjacent work areas.